


Assistant Direction

by bigficenergy



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Episode: S07e06 Sunrise Bébé, Friendship, Multi, New Relationship, Pep Talk, Stevie is killing it in all aspects of her life, phone conversation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29346432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigficenergy/pseuds/bigficenergy
Summary: Stevie's lazy morning with Ruth is interrupted by repeated phone calls from Moira, who is nervous about her first day of filming theSunrise Bayreboot and simplymusttalk to Stevie.
Relationships: Stevie Budd & Moira Rose, Stevie Budd/Ruth Clancy
Comments: 14
Kudos: 47
Collections: Schitt's Creek Season 7





	Assistant Direction

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [SCSeason7](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/SCSeason7) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> 7x06 - It's Moira's first day of shooting on the Sunrise Bay reboot, and despite her excitement, she's having some first day jitters. Who does she call to try to soothe her nerves? Bonus points if it's not one of her immediate family members!

Stevie wakes with all the haste of the rising sun itself, which is to say she’s in no hurry at all. Though she remembers distantly that she is in an unfamiliar bed, she can’t remember the last time she’s felt so comfortable. The movement next to her doesn’t startle her, it only relaxes her more. Without opening her eyes, she lifts her arm so Ruth can snuggle in closer. She presses her face into Ruth’s hair, smiling when she feels that it’s warm from the sunshine that’s slowly seeping in through window behind the bed.

Ruth says something, but Stevie’s brain isn’t online yet. She responds with an unintentionally gruff, “Hmm?” which just makes Ruth giggle.

“I said I thought you were gonna turn your alarm off.”

Stevie’s relaxed brow furrows in confusion. “I did.”

“Phone keeps buzzing.”

As if on cue, Stevie’s phone starts vibrating, and now she’s awake enough to hear it. It goes on and on, so it must be a call. She reaches out blindly for the nightstand, but by the time she gets a grip on her phone, it stops ringing. She sighs, dropping the hand holding the phone on her stomach without looking at it.

“Must be a telemarketer.”

“Pretty persistent for a telemarketer.”

Stevie grumbles dismissively, and just as she’s about to drift off again, her phone buzzes twice. She sighs again, lifting it up to her face and blinking her eyes open. The screen shows three missed calls from a number she doesn’t recognize, and a text from David.

**David  
** _Please answer your phone it’s my mom  
_ _She keeps calling ME because you’re not answering!  
_ _She won’t talk to anyone but you??_

Stevie rubs her eyes, trying to focus her fuzzy brain. Why would Mrs. Rose need to talk to her?

**Stevie  
** _???_

**David  
** _Idk… but today’s her first day on set…_

That could certainly explain the flurry of texts, but it still doesn’t explain why she needs to talk to Stevie specifically. There’s no time for her to ponder this further, because her phone is ringing again.

“Sorry,” she says to Ruth. “I think I have to take this.”

“No problem,” Ruth says, kissing Stevie’s bare shoulder. “I’ll make coffee.”

They both roll out of bed, and Stevie answers the call, realizing belatedly that she probably should have found her shirt first.

“Hello?” she says, looking around the room for something to put on so she’s not talking to her best friend’s mother while wearing just her underwear. She hears shuffling on the line.

_“Y– yes, hellooo? Hello, Stevie?”_

“Yeah, hi Mrs. Rose. Sorry I missed your calls, I’m just um…” 

She looks up to see Ruth coming to her, holding up a robe she’d retrieved from her closet. She helps Stevie into it, even though she hasn’t bothered to put a top on herself, which Stevie tries not to get distracted by.

“It’s just a little… early,” Stevie finishes, blushing as Ruth digs out the plaid shirt Stevie had been wearing the previous night, from where it ended up tangled in the bedding. She pulls it on with a little shimmy, then tiptoes out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her to give Stevie some privacy.

_“Well my dear, unless you have unbeknownst to me found yourself in this celestial metropolis, I do believe it’s quite a bit earlier here than it is on your end.”_

“Right of course,” Stevie says. “But then, shouldn’t you be resting up for your big day?”

_“Oh Stevie. I haven’t had a nictate of slumber in the many moons leading up to this moment. I have been up all night annotating and annotating–”_

Stevie hears a rustling of papers and imagines pages and pages of scripts littering the floor of what her mind instinctively fills in as the original Rosebud Motel, even though she knows the studio must be putting Mrs. Rose up somewhere much nicer in LA.

_“–and at one point, I thought I had developed bifold vision, but it turns out, I had been annotating my annotations!”_

“Mrs. Rose, it’s totally understandable that you’d be experiencing some jitters. But I’m sure once you’re on set and you find your… groove, or whatever, you’re gonna be great.”

Stevie is aware that these are reassurances that anyone could provide, but she doesn’t know what else to say. It seems these are not the reassurances Moira is looking for, because she continues on as if Stevie hadn’t said anything.

_“They have this hip, fledgling director coming in to direct the first episode, fresh off some infobahn success I had never even heard of! When we met at the first table read, she told me how excited she was to work with me, and that she used to watch Sunrise Bay with her mother. What am I to do with that?!”_

“Um… that sounds like a compliment to me. Are you worried about her ability as a new director, or do you have a problem with the scripts, or…?”

_“My anxieties are myriad, Stevie!”_

Moira’s raised voice forces Stevie to pull the phone away from her ear. She sighs. She wants to help, but what can she, a one-time stage actress, say to a veteran soap star? In the kitchen, she hears the clink of mugs being taken out of the pantry, and her mind drifts to Ruth. She thinks about how they met, the initial professional relationship built largely on the faith both parties had in each other. Maybe, Stevie thinks, it’s not her acting experience that’s going to be the most helpful here.

“Mrs. Rose… the way I see it, you’ve done the hard part. You established yourself a long time ago, and you proved that you’re invaluable to the success of _Sunrise Bay's_ comeback. I understand if it’s intimidating–”

Mrs. Rose cuts her off with what can only be described as an indignant squawk. _“I am not intimidated. I, I have paid my dues, Stevie, I–”_

“Of course. What I’m trying to say is, I know that even when you’ve put in the work, taking the next step, a new step, can be difficult. But it sounds like you already have someone in your corner. Someone who is familiar with your work and appreciates it, but can also bring a fresh perspective. I bet you’ll have a great time working with this director.”

There’s a pause before Mrs. Rose asks, _“And what if I don’t?”_

“Well, how did you handle that super indifferent guy who directed the _Crows_ movie?”

_“I suppose you could say I gave him a little direction of his own.”_

“Exactly. And when you’re working with someone who is actually invested in the project and in you, that’s gonna feel a lot more like actual collaboration.”

There’s another pause, longer this time. Stevie is about to ask Mrs. Rose if she’s still there, when she finally asks, _“When did you get so wise, Stevie?”_

“Isn’t that why you called? For my deep well of wisdom?” Stevie jokes.

 _“No,”_ Mrs. Rose says, and Stevie almost laughs at her bluntness. But Moira continues, _“I mean, I called you because I had a specific query. One I’ve asked before, that you never answered.”_

“Oh. Um, what was it?”

_“I once asked what your secret was.”_

The conversation rushes back to Stevie. Backstage, opening night of _Cabaret_. Right before her biggest moment in the show.

 _“Your secret,”_ Moira continues, _“to being so unequivocally yourself. In the face of both stifling tedium and tremendous challenge, you have never compromised your sense of self. I thought that returning to television would be a homecoming, but after our time in… that little borough where we first met… I sometimes feel that I don’t know who I really am anymore.”_

This time, it’s Stevie who has to pause, smiling to herself. Moira Rose paying her a compliment, _that_ compliment, is as unexpected as it was the first time.

“Mrs. Rose, I can assure you, I have never met anyone who was as unabashedly themselves as you are. And… I don’t think there’s a secret to that, really. I think, in different ways, we just don’t know how to be anyone else.”

 _“Unless we’re on a stage, of course,”_ Moira says, pointedly.

“Of course. But even then, your advice to me was to use how I was feeling. I mean, I’m no expert, but I’d guess that you’re so good at what you do because of the parts of yourself you put into it.”

 _“Well. I certainly hope that’s true.”_ Moira sighs. _“It brings me such delectation knowing you are out there soaring to new heights.”_

Stevie huffs bashfully. “Thank you. I honestly wouldn’t be where I am without you and Mr. Rose.”

_“I’m certainly not one to turn down a credit, but I do believe there had to be something in you to start for us to cultivate. You keep tending to that inner garden. Who knows what may effloresce next.”_

“I will.”

_“Good. Now, I suppose I should get myself in order. Big day today, after all.”_

“You’re gonna be great, Mrs. Rose.”

_“I suspect you’re right. Give my love to David and Patrick, won’t you?”_

“I will. Once I’m back from New York.”

_“Oh, I didn’t realize you were on business. John never said.”_

“Oh, I’m not, I’m here for, uh… pleasure,” Stevie says before she can stop herself, wincing at the choice of word.

 _“Well,”_ Moira says, suggestive, knowing. _“You’re certainly not watching life happen from behind the desk anymore, are you?”_

“I guess I’m not,” Stevie says, smiling at the door, eager for what awaits on the other side. “Break a leg, Mrs. Rose.”

_“Adieu, mon amie.”_

After hanging up, Stevie takes a moment in the silence of Ruth’s bedroom. There had been times when Mrs. Rose – when all the Roses – had been… a lot. To put it nicely. But they’d all become members of this weird little extended family of hers, and now that they’re scattered, she misses them. It’s a comfort to still be able to see David pretty regularly, to work with Mr. Rose, and she even talks to Alexis quite a bit, via text. But she hadn’t realized how much she missed Mrs. Rose. She makes a mental note to ask David what the best way to keep in touch with his mom might be, and then heads out of the bedroom.

In the kitchen, Ruth turns at the sound of the door, just as she plating some toaster waffles.

“Busted,” she laughs, bringing the plate to the kitchen table. “I had this plan to pass these off as a fancy, homemade breakfast. Mostly by piling on tons of whipped cream and fresh berries.”

“Well I hate to break it to you, but I am a connoisseur of Eggos and other frozen foods,” Stevie says, pouring herself a cup of coffee from the fresh pot, into the mug left out for her. “Can’t fool me that easily.”

“Sounds like I don’t need to anyway,” Ruth teases, going back into the kitchen to retrieve her own coffee.

“Nope,” Stevie says, lifting her chin to receive a kiss.

“So. Everything okay?”

“Yeah, Mrs. Rose was just nervous about her first day of working on the show. She’s gonna be fine though.”

“So let me get this straight. You work with Rose Video’s Johnny Rose _and_ you dole out advice to star-of-television-and-film Moira Rose. What is it like to be you?”

“Oh you know, trips to New York, frantic early morning phone calls. Is this where I learn you only want me for my connections?”

“You got me,” Ruth says, and Stevie hides a snort behind her mug. “But seriously, what do you say when _the_ Moira Rose gets stage fright?”

“Honestly, I kind of just recycled advice she gave me when I did _Cabaret_.”

“I’m still dying to see videos from that, by the way.”

“Well, you’ve seen me naked now, so all that’s left is to show you my stage debut.”

“Can’t wait to take that next step with you,” Ruth says, grinning. “Come on. The waffles are getting cold.”

Stevie lets herself be tugged to the kitchen table, taking a seat across from Ruth, crossing her legs in the chair.

“I actually have you to thank for some of the things I said to Mrs. Rose,” Stevie says, plucking a blueberry from the selection of waffle toppings Ruth has laid out and popping it in her mouth.

“Me?” Ruth asks, as she sprays a comical amount of whipped cream on her waffles. “What did I do?”

“When you came to tell us you wanted to work with the Rosebud Group, you were seeing potential and taking a chance. You wanted to help us grow, but you also respected Mr. Rose for what he’d done. You gave us the direction we needed.” Stevie toys with the handle of her mug. “And you gave _me_ the direction I needed.”

When she looks up, Ruth is giving her a look that makes her heart beat too fast, so she busies herself with the syrup.

“Hey,” Ruth says, and Stevie looks up again. Ruth makes a rectangle with the thumb and index finger, looking through it with one eye like a camera viewfinder. “I’m only as good as my star.”

“Wow,” Stevie laughs. “Next time I should have you give Mrs. Rose her pep talk.”

“Oh no way,” Ruth says, resuming her waffle-topping. “I’ll leave the celebrity whispering to you. You’re the expert.”

Stevie has never felt like an expert in anything. She’s still convinced that her advice to Mrs. Rose, as well-received as it may have been, had just been regurgitated advice given to her. But maybe that didn’t matter. Maybe it was enough to speak honestly to a friend in need of encouragement. Even that’s new to her, being a close friend and confidant to someone, the way she has been at one time or another to all the Roses, and the way she is now to her girlfriend as well. Her instincts have always been to be defensive and self-deprecating, but now, the urge to make a joke and brush Ruth’s compliments off isn’t so immediate. In fact…

“Yes,” Stevie says. “Yes I am.”

“Damn straight,” Ruth affirms.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope it's okay that this Moira-centric prompt is basically wrapped in a Stevie/Ruth fic. I have to say, I love the idea of Ruth being a little dorky outside of work. I hope that was a charming idea to you too.
> 
> Also, was it clear that "celestial metropolis" = City of Angels = Los Angeles? Moira speak is hard, an effort was made.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading! 💚


End file.
